Disclaimer: I am not a billionaire. I could not possibly own Star Wars. Although, I do have Disney stocks so… maybe?

Anakin stood beaming with pride at his and Luke's creation. He thought he was proud when his teenaged son wanted to build a speeder together, but now that it was finished, and Luke had done the vast majority of the work, taking heed of his every word, he could not have been prouder of his boy. The Naboo sun was beaming down and the summer heat was intense, but it was clear and bright: the perfect day for a first flight. Perfect timing too since Obi-Wan and Ahsoka were supposed to come today. He slapped his organic hand on the shoulder of his son and looked at him, the both of them beaming at one another. "Son, she's ready!"

"I still can't believe we were able to turn that old clunker into a true hotrod!" Luke commented, shaking his head and he took the old rag from the garage workbench and wiped the sweat from his forehead, inadvertently smearing engine grease across it.

"Believe it Luke, because that right there is your handiwork."

"You mean ours, right?"

Anakin scoffed, "You did ninety percent of the work, easily. I just told you how to do it. This is your baby right here."

Luke smirked and looked at the speeder. His speeder. A brilliant red, two-seat, sporty thing they had gotten the ruined frame of from a scrap yard owned by an overweight, one-eyed Gungun. They had seen the potential and now that it was done, it was beautiful.

"Anakin! Luke! Uncle Ben and Aunt 'Soka are here!" Padmé called from in the domicile.

"Let's go inside, we can test her out later. And you need to clean up."

Luke furrowed his brow and then rubbed his fingers on his forehead, realizing his mistake, "Ugh, yeah alright."

As Luke went off to take a shower, waving at the two Jedi as he went, Anakin hugged them both before plopping down in his favorite chair. "It's great to see you two again, glad you could make it! So, how are things on Coruscant?"

Ahsoka was the first to answer "Barriss just took another Padawan. A Twi'lek kid, I think."

"And I finally managed to get Master Secura to go to rehab. So far, she's only broken out twice," Obi-Wan mentioned.

Anakin smiled, "About time, for both of those things, Barriss is a good teacher, just look at how she did with you."

Ahsoka smiled and rolled her eyes, "You did all the heavy lifting, she had me for, what, a month? If that? It was a formality."

"Still taught you a few things in that time. She did pretty well with that Selonian kid, can't remember his name right now. Cinder?"

"Zonder."

"Zonder! Right, she did pretty well with him from what I've heard on the grapevine." Anakin then turned to look his old Master in the eye, taking note of the increased number of wrinkles and pondering just how many of them came from him, "So you finally managed to get her to try to kick the stuff huh?"

"Moreso, she overdosed and had some sense finally scared into her."

"Eesh, who found her?"

"Some kid leaving his shift in the Halls of Healing. Just in time too or else we'd have had another funeral on our hands. Not one caused by battle droids this time."

Anakin frowned, the war only lasted about a year, but they were still trying to rebuild what all had been destroyed, some planets were still trying to bury the dead. "How's Sheev?"

"The former Chancellor's condition is stable for now, although he is getting on in his years. It was nothing short of a miracle he survived that heart attack all those years ago, let alone that catastrophic stroke-aneurism combo just a week after."

"If you want," Ahsoka offered, "we can take you and the family up to the nursing home?" She looked down and lowered her voice a bit, "Might not get a chance to say goodbye later."

"That'd be great!" Padmé answered, entering the room with Leia at her side, she may not have agreed with a lot of what Palpatine had stood for as Chancellor, but he was still a decent enough man who stood by their people and the Republic.

"You know," Obi-Wan offered, "I heard he's been able to move his fingers again."

"Are you serious?" Anakin asked, being careful not to get too hopeful. Like Obi-Wan had said earlier, the Chancellor was getting older, even if he was starting to recover, nature would do him in long before such a recover was complete."

"What about you Skyguy? How have things been here?"

"It's going alright, work's been decent in the shop. Might open a second location up pretty soon. Speaking of which, you remember that project I told you that Luke and I were working on together?"

"That hunk of junk?" Ahsoka asked in a playful tone.

"That 'hunk of junk' is ready to fly later today. All due to my boy!" Anakin bragged.

"Let's hope he took his flying skills from you as much as he did his engineering."

"Yes, and we can only pray he took after Padmé in the landing department," Obi-Wan teased, earning a glare from Anakin and a chuckle from Padmé."

"Hey! I haven't crashed a ship in six- "

"Months?" Ahsoka joked.

"Days?" Obi-Wan bounced off from her.

"Minutes?"

"Years!" Anakin shouted, only for Padmé to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ani, remember what the doctor said about your blood pressure."

"Right, right. Speaking of which, Obi-Wan, you want some tea?"

Obi-Wan cocked an eyebrow and he and Ahsoka looked at one another before looking at Anakin, "I thought you hated tea?"

"I do, but the doc says it helps with blood pressure and I refuse to be medicated unless it gets worse. Sabé managed to find a kind I can sort of tolerate." He slapped his knees and started to get up, "Welp, I'll have 3PO put on a pot and- "

"Already done Master Anakin!" C3PO answered walking in with a tray holding the kettle and enough cups for them all.

"Thanks buddy!"

The five continued to gossip, joke, and catch up over tea, occasional teasing over Anakin's grimace with every sip notwithstanding. It was almost like old times, Anakin thought, "No," he corrected, "this. This is better than the way things were." Luke eventually entered the sitting area, hair still wet from the shower. That mop on that boy's head retained water better than any vaporator on Tatooine ever could. He might have to put the idea in Luke's head to try and do just that. Anakin shook his head, barely even perceptibly, "Nah. He's not made for moisture farming." Again Anakin put his hands to his knees and stood, "There you are!"

"Hey Uncle Ben! Auntie Soka!"

"Hi Luke," they replied in near unison.

"Luke, what do you say we go ahead and take her for a test drive?"

"Right now?"

"Yep! Show these two how well we did." Anakin answered with a smirk.

Within the next ten minutes, Anakin. Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka were watching Luke get the speeder started. Father beaming with delight and the two Jedi catching his contagious smile, Anakin called out one last time, "Remember what I told you!"

"Hands at 10 and 2, right foot only, remember where the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth gears are on the shift, and ease on the brakes!" While it wasn't Luke's first flight, Anakin had been practicing with him extensively in his own speeder, this was Luke's first solo flight. He wasn't going to leave the property of course, he wasn't licensed yet, but Varykino was more than big enough to get some basic practice in. Luke started the engine and both his and Anakin's hearts swelled with pride at hearing it roar to life before settling into a purr. The repulsorlift started up shortly after and soon enough Luke was in the air. He zipped off into the air and he could hear his father give out a whoop of joy, "That's my boy!"

Luke built up speed, although making sure it wasn't too much, and made sure to keep his hands exactly where his father had told him to keep them, although he couldn't help but feel a little giddy at the fact that this was his speeder. He built it with his dad, he was doing his first solo flight in it. This was the best day ever!

Back on the ground, Ahsoka cupped her hands to her mouth, "Do a flip!"

"Absolutely do not! Your mother will kill me!" Anakin called desperately. Obi-Wan simply pinched the bridge of his nose, smiling and shaking his head. With these two it really seemed like nothing had changed.

Luke had decided he had had enough of playing with his new toy and went to slow it down. "Take the foot off the accelerator, slowly ease it onto the brakes, and change gears as you… why am I not slowing down?" Oh. Oh, this was bad.

As soon as Luke crashed into the tree, all three sprang into action, although neither Jedi was running as fast as the panicked Skywalker patriarch, "No! My boy!"

"Father, help!" Luke called from the lake, having been ejected from his wreckage as soon as it made contact. His ribs hurt, and he had gotten several cuts flying through the branches, but he was fairly certain he hadn't actually broken anything… other than his now demolished vehicle.

As soon as he was dragged back onto the shore, Anakin started to yell, "Why didn't you stop it before you hit the tree?!"

"I tried," Luke answered, seeing his mother sprinting towards them with Leia close behind, "apparently, the brakes didn't actually work."

Anakin glanced at his wife and daughter running towards them, "If your mother asks, you were wearing your seatbelt."